Vampyre
Vampire (僵屍, Kyonshi) is a mutant-type quirk that grants its users the seemingly conventional physiological enhancements afforded to a vampire by their own 'undead' biology. Description One of the primary changes made to her body— due to the secretion of mutagenic enzymes and addition of an unidentified active gene— was the rapid multiplication and hyper sensitivity of the rod and cone cells in her eyes; with some of these new rod cells replacing the excess and unnecessary cone cells. The iris also becomes hyperdialated; giving her the classic demonic black eyes. With the retina now reflecting more light into the rod cells, the eyes also shine or shimmer in the dark; which works well for intimidation. Due to these changes, her eyes are extremely sensitive to light but at the same time, almost instantly adapt to darkness; granting her enhanced night vision with great visual acuity. These sensitive eyes force her to either sport shades or continue her vigilantism exclusively at night or in dark areas. Her eyes also experience extreme vasodilation of the sclera, which makes her eyes appear reddish; however, this also makes her effectively blind during the day. Her vomeronasal organ is highly sensitive which can pick up chemical signals left behind by other living beings and this is due to her having in excess of 330 million olfactory receptors in her nose, compared to the 6 million possessed by normal human beings. The part of her brain that is devoted to analyzing smells is, proportionally speaking, over 40 times greater than that of a human; while also being four times as energy efficient. Though unlike the myths and folklores, she cannot transform into a bat, she does share an unique trait with the flying mammal; that is the ability to detect and process ultrasonic sounds due to her auditory range being as large as 19Hz to 95kHz. She is also capable of using echolocation much like the associated animal. She can send out strong signals using a very loud, short sound and assess the echo when it bounces back; these short and loud sounds are known as pulses and she is capable of sending out 180 pulses per second. This ability allows her to accurately map the location of things and people in her vicinity. Thanks to a combination of hypertrophic cerebral neurons and additional receptor cells, her senses are borderline superhuman and exceeds that of dogs and cats. It is also noted that the chemical changes in the brain that help us to wake up automatically in response to morning light is actually reversed in her brain; causing her to wake up at dusk and sleep throughout the day. The reason blood is so efficient for her and other vampires is because blood grants her exactly what her brain craves, blood contains sodium citrate which is a white crystalline compound and is used as a medicine especially as an anticoagulant. Blood also contains dextrose which is the dextrorotatory form of glucose, since glucose is an important source of physiological energy and her altered physiology craves the dextrorotatory form of glucose, it is imperative for her to consume blood. Also, blood has adenine, a purine base that is the constituent involved in base pairing with thymine in DNA and with uracil in RNA. All of these are a basic need for a vampire, not to mention that a vampire's body is naturally deficient in iron, which it can derive from the consumption of haemoglobin, which is why she and vampires like her prefer mammalian blood. Her brain also releases a huge amount of dopamine which induce feelings of euphoria, and are released in a her brain when she feeds, the effects of drinking blood lights up the same sections of the brain as a heroin addict's brain does when presented with heroin. Blood also has a placebo effect on those with a vampirism quirk similar to her, due to the closely tied belief of that blood not only satisfies a vampire’s thirst, but it also heightens their supernatural abilities, making them stronger, faster, and able to heal much more quickly than they would after not eating for a significant period of time. Although, it is true that blood consumption makes her body much warmer and can actually aid her in rapid cellular division; the rest is the result of her believing in it. It is hinted that blood consumption adds high amounts of the protein Whi5 in her body, which allows her cells to grow much larger before division and thanks to her augmented MPF, her cells divide at a rate that is nearly twelve times greater than that of a healthy human adult. Her blood additionally is actually black due to an increase in iron and bile levels gained from feeding, allowing it to carry more oxygen and clot faster while slowing the growth of harmful microbes. Though many consider a vampire to be dead, they are not actually "Dead". As seen from Erin herself, who is a living-born vampire thanks to her mutant quirk; Erin maintains a heart rate that is slightly lower than that of human beings but can and will accelerate after feeding, making her body just as warm. Like Leukemia patients, she and those with a mutant vampire quirk have several times the amount of white blood cells than an average human. An average human has about 7,000 to 25,000 white blood cells in a single drop of blood while Erin has around 72,000 WBCs which make her highly resistant to most, if not all diseases. However, this also puts her at a high risk of death. If she were to contract an autoimmune disease, she is likely to simply drop dead due to her white blood cell potency. Interestingly, it also seems that her RBCs or Red Blood Cells can last for up to 250 days instead of having the traditional 120 days cycle; which makes it easy for her to regulate blood that she has fed on at once for up to eight months, unless she is forcibly drained of it. If a vampire such as her gets a cut, her body reacts immediately and heals the cut with a scab then the scab falls off. Usually it takes a bit of time for humans to heal, but a cut can heal within seconds for a vampire. This prevents her from bleeding too much or having clots inside the body. This is likely a result of adaptive radiation which ensures her biological survival due to her mutant physiology that has a tendency to store blood. Erin since her childhood was known to have extremely strong and powerful calcified teeth that were somewhat jagged in shape to begin with, with the inclusion of sharp and elongated pseudo-teeth. These pseudo-teeth function similarly to that of snake fangs, as they are retractable and are hollowed out similar to a hypodermic needle, which facilitates blood sucking. Although, she can also use it to simply puncture the skin and then drink blood with her mouth instead of sucking in small doses with her pseudo-tooth. Her actual tooth are also quite capable of a formidable bite and can generate a bite force of 720 psi and considering the bite force generated by the molars of a human female is around 110 psi, this makes her bite extremely deadly in comparison. The bite force of a lion is around 660 psi, while cats such as a tiger possesses bite force as strong as 1050 psi. This deadly bite force is a result of her strong jaw muscles working in unison with her hardened crystalline teeth. On a physiological level, her body is mostly composed of an advanced strain of fast-twitch muscle fibers with a small amount of slow-twich fibers. However, her fast-twitch fibers are filled with myoglobin and mitochondria that outclass and outnumber humanly myoglobin and mitochondria count by over ten times; this makes her muscles extremely resistant to fatigue and gives her highly explosive dynamic strength that is superior to a woman on her size and build who engages in regular exercise by over ten times, eventually granting her the ability to lift and handle weights of up to 1600 lbs or 726 kg. This strength also extends to her leg muscles and increases her kicking power and jumping ability; granting her moderate levels of enhanced physical prowess. The ligaments and tendons in her body are also thicker and more resistant with a higher amount of shock absorption fluid in them, to compensate for the heavy load and wear and tear that this enhanced physical prowess puts her body through. However, this also means that to power her body, she must drain at least five human beings completely dry of their blood or her abilities would not operate at their peak capacity. This strength also translate to her strikes, with her short ranged punches delivering around 1780 pound of force which is over twice the necessary force to break a concrete slab 1.5 inches thick. This advanced musculature along with their stronger skeletal frame also allows them to run at a much greater speed and their high lung capacity along with mitochondria rich blood allows them to maintain this speed for a higher amount of time. Her serotonin, dopamine and norepinepherine levels are vastly different from that of a regular human being, causing her to experience emotions very differently than that of a human. The likes of Erin experience emotions at a much higher intensity than normal, making vampires extremely emotional beings. Emotions like love, joy, and happiness are magnified for vampires, allowing them to live life more intensely. This ability allows vampires to feel emotions at their peak regardless of their age. Conversely, sadness, depression, guilt, fear and anger are also amplified, causing many vampires to become overwhelmed. Finally, her very DNA seems to be capable of resist aging and chemical compounds as it is encompassed in a protective matrix that shields it from oxidation and undergoing volatile chemical reaction but it is mostly noted for its ability to produces high amounts of telomerase reverse transcriptase at an extremely fast rate that puts those with Longevity to shame. This allows her to maintain her appearance and vitality over an extended period of time and while she is over eighty, she does not look older than a woman in her twenties. The oldest known vampire was able to resist the effects of aging for up to 650 years, before time finally caught up to him; suggesting that if not killed or hunted down herself, she could grow up to be as old as 600. This extended lifespan is the closest thing to immortality that can be biologically achieved. Weaknesses *'Sunlight': Unlike the folklore idea of vampires burning in the sun, due to her extremely advanced and sensitive eyesight, sunlight actually renders her effectively blind. Additionally, due to the low melanin in her body, she is also more likely to get rashes and tanned from staying too long under the sun. They most certainly do not sparkle or have diamond skin. *'Non-Mammalian Blood': Non-mammalian blood cannot supply a vampire with the proper nutrients that it requires to power its body and can have an adverse effect on their body; causing them to vomit and lose consciousness temporarily, as their bodies violently reject the blood in their system. *'Extensive Injury': While she does heal 12 times as fast and more efficiently from wounds and injuries and this factor is likely near 18 times greater than that of a human being when it comes to dealing with superficial cuts and bruises, she cannot heal from things such as total blindness or a snapped neck. Thus, things such as decapitation, drowning, heart extraction, etc. can all kill her. Additionally, she cannot also regrow her internal organs, as such, grievous internal injury can result in death. *'Fire': While she is not particularly weak to fire, her modified physiology is particularly more prone to irritation in presence of excess heat; additionally, while her biochemistry grants her a flawless skin that does not age or develop skin problems, it is more flammable when compared to normal human skin; making her more vulnerable to fire. Again, it is not that she is particularly weak to fire, just that she does not possess any special resistance to it and her outer skin is twice as flammable as human skin. *'Emotions': As they experience emotions more intensely than human beings, it is possible to use their heightened emotional state against them, making them particularly vulnerable to manipulation and outbursts of anger. *'Sensory Overload': Due to her acute and highly developed senses, it is possible for one to overload her sensory system by mixing in extremely loud sounds with foul smell, which can temporarily incapacitate her and cause her to experience unbearable amount of pain. **'Vulnerability to Gases': Her enhanced lung capacity and heightened sense of smell makes her extremely vulnerable to nauseous and incapacitating gases, as she readily absorbs them in her lungs, through her nose and mouth at a much higher rate. This can cause her to metabolize toxic chemicals quickly that can negatively impact her body. Although, thanks to her healing ability, she can also recover from the effects just as quickly. *'Autoimmune Diseases': Thanks to her extremely potent immune system and high WBC count, she is at high risk of death. As contracting autoimmune diseases would lead to certain death, since her biologically augmented cells would rapidly attack and kill her own body. *'Werewolf Venom': All Vampires with the exception of the original Vampyre, has to be weary of a werewolf bite as the venom produced by their body has been specially developed over time to kill a vampire. With even the smallest dosage, it can cause them to become physically weak and start hallucinating. High exposure would cause the venom to slowly breakdown her body and nullify her healing ability. It can cause her blood to become extraordinarily thin and seep out of her pores, leading to a painful death. Unconventional Weaknesses *'Cancer': While she is resistant to cancer causing mutations and stress triggered cancer, theoretically, if one were to acquire cancer before activating this mutant quirk, the mutation due to its enhanced cellular growth and division would send the cancer into overdrive, causing it to spread about twelve times as fast; leading to death. Trivia * Kyonshi is the Japanese word for a jiangshi, also known as a Chinese "hopping" vampire, is a type of reanimated corpse in Chinese legends and folklore. * Unlike traditional vampires, she does not need to be invited in or is weak to wood. Wooden stakes do no more damage than metallic ones, although, a stake to heart would kill her just like any other human being. * Erin also personally laughs at the idea of not being able to cross flowing water, as she is an accomplished swimmer herself and could likely win a medal in Olympic level swimming. * Contrary to popular belief, vampires have beating hearts and they cannot function without oxygen. * While she cannot actually turn someone else into a vampire through her bite, her actual tooth can secrete a paralyzing, though non-toxic, venom. This is mainly used by her to temporarily either stun an enemy or paralyze a potential victim for her to feed upon. This venom is not produced by her pseudo-tooth and comes directly from her incisors and premolars. * While similar, there is a huge difference between a Vampire/Vampyre/Kyonshi and a . That particular variant of a vampiric entity is a much more stronger and feral; with a little ability to understand emotions. Category:Mutant Quirks